ANDERSON Co., SC (WSPA) – After beating out long time Sheriff John Skipper in 2016, Chad McBride took over as Anderson County Sheriff promising change. With his first year now under his belt, 7News sat down with him to see how he thought it went.

McBride said he could not pinpoint one moment that was a highlight of the year, but instead enjoyed celebrating all the small and large victories with his department throughout the year. As for the toughest moment, he said the loss of Master Deputy Devin Hodges back on June 1.

“The loss of Devin was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever experienced as a leader,” McBride said.

But McBride said the increase in drug arrests by 85.2 percent truly showed how hard the department was working to protect the people and the statistic he was most proud of for 2017. In 2018, he hopes to grow those numbers even more.

“We just want to put up as much resistance as possible to the drug trafficking and trade in Anderson County. We want to leave Anderson County better than the way we got it,” McBride said.